“Here is your God.” Behold, your God. Those are the words we heard from the book of
Isaiah. It goes on: He comes with
vindication, with divine recompense, he comes to save you. It goes on, talking of all the miraculous
healing that will happen, all great cause for rejoicing on this Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of
rejoicing. But, the future, what will
happen, can distract us, almost water down, the exultant immanence of the
Hebrew acclamation: Hinneh elohekem! “Here
Is your God.” Not, here’s the
spot where he will be, just hang on; certainly not, there’s where he will be,
but he’s distant now, so don’t bother Him.
No. Here is your God. The cry might go up… “where?”
Sunday, December 11, 2016
God makes the deserted bloom – Matt 11:2-11, Isa 35:1-6a, 10
Third Sunday of Advent, Year A; Holy Infant Church
Saturday, December 3, 2016
God makes us kings – Isa 11:1-9
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A; Holy Infant parish
We use
cute kittens for praising friends. Ask
anyone who got confirmed at Holy Cross grade school in South Bend, IN in 2014
or ’15 what the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are, and right before they tell
you wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, fear of the
Lord, they’ll probably think to themselves: we use cute kittens for praising
friends. It taught the confirmation class
to our 7th and 8th graders, and made up that mnemonic
(where the first letter of each word matches) to make sure they remember the
seven gifts, because I knew that our bishop would base his confirmation homily
around asking them what the seven gifts were and preaching about each one. Only on one quiz did I ever get told that the
seven gives were wisdom, understanding, counsel, kittens, fortitude, piety and
fear of the Lord.